“Hey Sanju, it’s raining darling, let’s go out for a drive” Akritha called me.

I was still lying on the bed with those heavy eyelids which battled to open. “What’s the time?” I asked her.

“2 O’ clock”

“What? At this time you wanna go out and play in the rain? You don’t sleep at all eh?” I asked her.

“Are you gonna come or should I go out with Krishna?” she said. “What krishna? No way, I am at your place in a few minutes,” I said. I pushed the quilt off me and stretched my hands and wagged my head like a dog wiling away the sleep-induced laziness.

‘You got to have patience of earth to maintain a girl friend’ I thought even as I washed my face and applied the strawberry flavor Ponds exfoliating cream. ‘I would look fresh and she would love me clean’ I told myself. Pulling out the hooded shirt from the cupboard and the trousers, zap came up the zip and ‘ouch’ came a sound. I pulled out my shoes and started tying the knots even as the thing hurt.

‘Oh my god, she’s gonna screw me. I am late by half an hour’ I thought as I drove my Getz at breakneck speed. I reached her home in a few minutes, parked my car beneath a tree infront of her house and called her up.

There was a slight drizzle. As she stepped out of the gate, closing it behind, a slight gust of wind disturbed the water droplets collected on the leaves and they showered upon her. She wagged her head and her smooth and flowing hair strands danced to the tunes of the wind.

She was dressed in a polka dotted blue frock and was wearing inch high-heel sandals. Her presence wouldn’t have lit the surroundings but it for sure turned me on lighting my heart.

“Come, let’s move” she said.

“You look beautiful... no gorgeous... no magnanimous... no...” she closed my mouth with her hand. I was still looking at her, mesmerized. Her tantalizing beauty was so captivating that I refused to turn my eyes off her.

I knew Akritha since the day one of my graduation. First it was friendship which blossomed into love. And then it was love, love and just love.

“If I had to spend my life without you near me... the days would all be empty... nights would seem so long” I always sang this Glenn Medeiros number for her.

She made me feel like a kid. She cared for me. She loved me. She.... and it was heaven.

I drove my car in this drizzle and we reached the Begumpet road. There were trees beside the road and another road lay adjacent to these trees alongside the Hyderabad Public School. I stopped my car over there.

The drizzle slowly converted into a torrential downpour and she opened the door and ran onto the road dancing in the rain even as I watched her from inside the car.

After a few minutes she walked towards the car and pulled me out after opening the door and we played for a while in the rain. It looked like the heavens were pouring their heart out in joy seeing two love birds dance beneath them.

And finally she was tired and she clasped my hand and pulled me towards the car. She sat on the bonnet of Getz. “Hey that will get dented” I said. “It won’t. You will” she said punching me in my tummy. Even as she sat on the bonnet, she pulled me close to her and crossed her legs behind me. We were in a position too close to comfort. And I could feel the warmth inside me. Sweat dripped down my face but the rain seemed to dissolve it.

She pushed her hair off her neck and bent her head to one side exposing her bare neck. I ran my hands along the swan soft neck of hers and slowly lowered my head, kissing her passionately on the neck. The fragrance of her body hasn’t been washed down with the rain and that aroused me. I slowly proceeded to her cheeks and was about to lock her lips with mine when she stopped me.

“No darling,” she said, “not now.” And I respected her stand. Perhaps this understanding made our love even more strong.

Four years, we enjoyed life.

One day at Prasadz’s, the other at Eat Street, one day at Mocha and one day at Barista... ‘Man this I life’ I thought. Enjoying like hell.

I had this theory about girls. The easiest way to a woman’s heart is through her heart itself. Impress her in such a way that you don’t stand one amongst the crowd. Girls love to laugh. Girls love flattery, that too from a friend. Girls love pure relationships. Girls love good and soft hearted guys. Once you are at the doorstep to her heart, care for her. Never make her feel alone. And I always followed this theory about Akritha.

Parties, rides, discos... and what not... She always held my hand wherever we went. The best way to know whether you are in her heart is to observe her keenly. The day she touches you or holds onto your shirt, you can be double sure that she’s very close to you. The day when she calls your number when she’s all alone, that means you are prioritized in her heart. And the day she kisses you, you are perhaps a very important one in her life.

Ofcourse I proposed to her long back in the year one of graduation itself. And she reciprocated me with the same feelings.

“Talk to your parents about our marriage. I think we are old enough to do it,” I told her one day. She did talk to her parents. As usual, her parents wouldn’t agree for this marriage. More than the life and the future of her daughter, their status in the society was more important to them.

One fine day, a common friend of mine showed me her wedding invitation. The world beneath me quaked and the heavens almost fell. I was shattered. The pain was inexplicable. And in days to come by, I was addicted to drinking.

Every place we have been to, reminded me of Akritha. For me, she was the world and now there’s nothing left in this world.

“Be practical man...” Raj, my best friend told me. “She’s married someone and she’s having kid too. I saw her a few days back and she was smiling and laughing with her husband.”

“She’s what? What happened to all the love? What happened to her promises?” I cried. “Ofcourse you can’t expect her to spoil her life just because of a failed relationship. Life has to go on,” he said.

“Life? There is no life without her. Look at these places. I am always reminded of her. Look at this heart” I said even as I tore apart my shirt in disconsolation and started to hit my chest with my fist. “This is full of her. She could have married and left me, forgotten me. But what about those promises? What about the inanimate places which mutely witnessed our love?” I asked as I drove along the Begumpet road and showed him after parking the car alongside. There was a slight drizzle and it reminded me of those good old days when I used to come out with her in the rain.

“Boss, two years from then, the trees are cut down and the road widened. The Begumpet road infront of HPS is not the same. It’s changed. Changed according to the needs of the growing modern world” he said, “and so do you, need to change”

“Is this what is called Love?” I asked him even as the droplets of rain dissolved my tears. “Love is love, only if it lasts a lifetime. Anything else is just a temporary solace we seek in others who are very close to us.”

I hugged him and he had a hard time consoling me.

A few days later, under Raj’s pressure, my parents arranged for a meet with a girl. “Man, I already saw her. She’s really beautiful. More beautiful than Akritha. You are definitely gonna like her. Akritha is your past. Forget your past and walk towards a beautiful future,” Raj said.

We were at the girls place. Yep. She’s beautiful indeed. More beautiful than my Akritha.

“Can I talk to you for a while in seclusion?” she asked me. And I nodded my head in affirmative. “My friends told me that you failed in love. Do you still love her so much?” she asked me straightforward and candid.

I dint know what to say. I was slightly nervous when I heard a loud crashing sound. She mistakenly pushed a dolphin showpiece made of glass. Even as I bent down to pick those pieces, she said, “It’s alright. My servant will clean it up”

“Look at those shattered pieces of glass lying on the floor”, I told her pointing my finger towards them.

“Whatever you may do, you still can’t get it back to the normal position. Even if you fix it up with glue or Feviquick, the cracks are still visible on it.”

“My heart is also like it. It’s shattered...” I said and I started to walk out of the room.